Researchers grapple with nuclear legacy

Sizewell A, a decommissioned Magnox power station. Cleaning up the legacy of Britain's first-generation nuclear plants will be a key part of the project.

Photo credit: John Brodrick (CC-BY-SA)

A consortium
of researchers at 10 universities, including Professor Nik Kaltsoyannis (UCL
Chemistry), has won £5m in government funding
to explore means of dealing with the UK’s nuclear waste. The DISTINCTIVE (Decommissioning,
Immobilisation and Storage soluTIons for NuClear wasTe InVEntories) project,
led by the University of Leeds and funded by the Engineering & Physical
Sciences Research Council, will bring together universities, the nuclear
industry and government nuclear advisors.

Scientists will work over the next four years on issues
including how best to handle different types of spent fuels, packaging and
storing waste, and dealing with nuclear sludges in ponds and siloes at nuclear
plants.

Nik Kaltsoyannis said: “The safe and secure management of plutonium
is a matter of serious international concern, with approximately 250 tonnes of
separated plutonium currently stockpiled worldwide. Nearly 50% of this material
is in storage in the UK, in the form of plutonium dioxide, whilst the British Government
develops its options for final treatment and disposition. At UCL, we will use
state‑of‑the‑art computer modelling to enhance our understanding of plutonium
dioxide itself, and also the interactions of plutonium dioxide surfaces with
water and other small molecules – a key problem in developing final treatment
and disposition strategies. Throughout the project we will work closely with
experimentalists at the Universities of Manchester and Lancaster.”

The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Sellafield Limited will be partners in the
project, alongside the Universities of Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Imperial,
Lancaster, Loughborough, Manchester, Sheffield, Strathclyde and UCL.

Research will be organised under four themes: AGR, Magnox and Exotic Spent Fuel; Plutonium oxide and Fuel
Residues; Legacy Ponds and Silos Wastes; Infrastructure characterisation,
restoration and preservation. Each project will have an industrial
supervisor from either NNL or Sellafield Limited.

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